
60^ 





LETTER 



OF 



HON. M. r. CONWAY 



TO 



SENATOR DOOLITTLE, 



OF WISCONSIN, 



In Support of President Johnson's Policy of Reconstruction. 



RICHMOND: 

PRINTED AT THE REPUBLIC BOOK AND JOB OFFICE:, 
18 6 5. 



L E T T E H 



OF 



ry 



J>" 




HON. M. Fr CONWAY 



TO 



SENATOR DOOLITTLE. 



OF WISCONSIN, 



In Support of President Johnson's Policy of Reconstruction. 



RICHMOND: 

PRINTED AT THE REPUBLIC BOOK AND JOB OFFICE. 
1865. 



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LETTER '! 



FROM ''^ 

k 

HON. M. F. CONWAY 

TO 

! i } 

SENATOR DOOLITTLE, of Wisconsin. 



Richmond, Ya., August 25, 1865. 

Ron. J. R. Doolittle^ United States Senator^ Racin&{ 
Wisconsin: ^ i; 

Dear Sir : I have received your favor of the 19th 
instant, in which you request an expression of my 
views on the condition of the country. To your re- 
quest I willingly respond, as I bold it to be the right 
of the public to be made acquainted with the views 
of any citizen of matter.^ of such universal concern. 
But for this cou'-ideration, I miofht prefer silently to 
leave the adjustment of existing complications to the 
statesmen on whom the course of events has devolved 
the responsibilities of power ; for as one of the millions, 
whose private fortunes are unimproved by the war, I 
am impelled, by my circumstances, whatever my tastQ 
or aptitude may be for , participating in the political 
movements of the people, to seek, at least for the pre- 
sent, some more lucrative occupation.. of, time an4 
attention. .:t -;[-.:-: ^-j^. <x^ m 



Surveying, then, all the circumstances of our pre- 
sent situation, I can see no better course for the peo- 
ple to pursue than cordially to unite, without regard 
to past differences, in concurrence with the President 
in carrying into effect the plan which he has indicated 
for restoring the States of the South to a practical en- 
joyment of their rights and fultillment of their duties 
in the Union. 

The President is obviously right in the opinion that, 
actual military conflict having ceased, as it has, the 
States lately in rebellion are States in the Union ; and 
from this, as a starting point, it seems to me that the 
path of duty lies clear. If in the Union at all, t'ey 
are there on an equal footing with all the other States ; 
on no foot'ng of inequality can they be there ; they 
have proportionately the same duties to perform and 
the same powers to exercise ; the State of South Caro- 
lina, for example, equally with the State of Massachu- 
setts ; for such is the condition prescribed in the Con- 
stitution^ the bond of union, the supreme law of the 
land, without which, or outside of which, 1 can see no 
legal ground ii])on whicli to stand iov administering 
the Government. 

The fact is immaterial to the issue, that at a time, 
under circumstances, and for an object, which no 
longer exists, the S'>uth was recognized as a bellige- 
rent Power. That it is now a belligerent Power can- 
not be said. It was not acknowledged to be bellige- 
renr as an independent nation, but as an organized 
mass of people in rebellion, within definite territorial 
limits, and capable, for a time, to set at defiance the 
regular authority of law. Of a rebellion, the object 
is to set aside the lawful government by substituting 



B 

another, and this it is the object of tlie lawful govern 
ment to prevent. Success in either object ends the 
rebellion ; in the one case, an independent nation 
arises ; in the other, the legal authority is restored. 
Accordingly, when the rebellion in the South failed, by 
the dispersion of its armies, its belligerent character 
terminated, and the national authority resumed its 
former and proper legal effect in due constitutional 
form. All laws, ordinances, constitutions, or institu- 
tions not in the meantime regularly superseded or set 
aside, in due course of law, become again legally 
operative as at the starting point of the rebellion. 

I am aware that this result would not have followed 
had the South acquired absolute independence by its 
arms and ou?' acknowledgement, instead of a mere 
belligerent character; for in that case the object of 
the Government in prosecuting the war thereafter 
would not have been lawfully restricted to restoring 
its authority, defied by insurgents, but it might have 
continued the war to conquer an alien enemy, and 
success would have brought with it a;l the rights which 
accrue from conquest, by the public law. But this is 
not the record which has been made ; and in the case 
presented by the actual facts, the President has no 
discretionary power, but is lequired lo recognize the 
States lately in rebellion as in the union of the Con- 
stitution equally with the other States. 

The opinion is expressed by some that the appoint- 
ment by the President of Provisional Governors for 
the States in question, clothed with defined powers, 
conflicts with his expressed views as to their present 
status. But, on correct principles, I do not think this 
opinion can be sustained. It is made his duty by the 
2* 



Constitution to see that the laws of the United States 
are faithfully executed in all the States. These 
laws look to the co-operatio'i of the regular State 
governments, in the absence of which it is impossible 
to see that they are faithfully executed. Such govern- 
ments are necessary means to the end which he is 
required to attain. It cannot be doubted, therefore, 
that the President is authorized to take the necessary 
steps to enable the people of the States t > reinvest 
themselves with the prescribed instrumentalities of 
State government. Not otherwise is it in his power 
to perform the duty directly enjoined on him in the 
Constitution. li^j: .;;:ii 

Upon the same ground it'is,' as' I understand, that 
military rule is maintained within the limits of these 
States. Without it, that order cannot be preserved 
in the communities necessary for the people to com- 
pletely resume their State Governments for a resump. 
tion, in practice, of their Federal relations. 

In fact, for the attainment of this end, it is neces- 
sary that the President and the people of the States 
shall move together in bringing into operation for each 
a State government ot the character necessary for 
holding the constitutional relations with the General 
Government and the other States. The State govern- 
ment here indicated is the State Government of the 
Constitution — such as existed prior to the rebellion, 
except in so far as it may be affected by the abolition 
of slavery— a government at harmony with other parts 
of our complex system, and friendly to their successful 
working, each in its appropriate sphere - not an or- 
ganization conflicting therewith and aiming to produce 
in them discord, confusion and eventual disruption — - 



as illustrated in the governments under wliich the 
seceded States carried on the rebellion- an organiza- 
tion incapable, from its animus^ to hold the relations 
the Constitution contemplates to be held by the several 
States to each other and the General Government. 
Until the President and the people of the seceded 
States can bring about the rehabilitation fur which the 
former has taken action by appointing the provisional 
officers before mentioned, the States must remain with" 
out the benefits of civil government. Should the 
efforts now being made tail to restore State govern- 
ments, harmonising with the requirements of the 
Union under the Constitution, in consequence of the 
intervention, so as to get control of the movement 
among the people, of the same class of persons whose 
influence formerly perverted the State govern njents to 
rebel, their failure will leave the States under military 
rule, but will not prevent other and more successful 
movements being made thereafter for the same object. 
I do not, therefore, share the opinion expressed by 
some, that the President is bound, by his appointment 
of Provisional Governors, to recognize any form of 
State Government whi(;h may be proposed to he put 
in operation under their supervision or authority ; nor 
do I PU))pose, from his public expressions, that he re 
gards himself under any such obligations. 

.Touching the question of negro suffrage, whatever 
parties may individually desire as to the result, it 
seems to me that the President's proceedings and 
declared opinions are in accordance with the rule of 
the law, by wliich only his footsteps should be guided. 
He is not opposed to confei ring on the colored man 
the elective franchise (at least I do not so understand 



8 

him), although he appears to be apprehensive that if 
done it would augment rather than diminish the politi- 
cal influence of the class of former slaveholders mainly 
responsible for the rebellion. But he opposes the pro- 
position that this should be done by act ot Congress, 
on the ground that to do this Congress has no right. 
Than the proposition that suffrage is a State institu- 
tion, over which Congress has no lawful control, there 
is none more unquestionable. There is nothing in the 
Constitution giving Congress this power, but so far 
from this is the fact, that it expressly designates for 
electors of members the United States House of Rep- 
resentatives that body of persons upon whom the right 
of suffrage may be conferred by the States. Control 
over this subject has been exercised exclusively by the 
States from the beginning of our political system. In 
some cases they have even denied the elective fran- 
chise to citizens of the United States while extending 
it to emigrants from abroad, still unnaturalized ; and 
to do this their right has been sustained by the highest 
judicial decision. I do not see, theref re, that, in this 
respect, the position the President occupies should 
occasion any complaint on the part of those who, in 
electing him to his high position, imposed on him the 
obligation faithfully to execute the laws. 

Nevertheless, with regard to negro suffrage, I have 
no doubt something will be done, in due time, by the 
States themselves, commensurate with the require- 
ments of justice, the necessities of the case, and the 
judgment of the world. The negro is now accepted 
by the peopl- of these States as a slave no longer, but 
a free man. During the whole period of the war he 
has earned the consideration and respect of the whites 



9 

everywhere by his services, when brought into the 
field, and general goud behavior in other conditions. 
He is not the enemy, but the friend of the whites 
among whom his lowly lot has been cast. By them 
his just claims will be considered, and, sooner or later, 
allowed ; sooner, perhaps, than is now generally be- 
lieved. 

it is not to be denied, however, that witli the prtva- 
lence of the same feeling in the ^onth with regard to 
the negro which has heretofore existed, no hope of this 
kind could for a moment be entertained. But by the 
influence of the great events of the last four years, 
and the wise, conciliatory and yet firm policy of the 
Government, the spirit prevailing in the South with 
respect to the colored man will be expected to change 
as effectually as its spirit has already changed in re- 
gard to the past institution of slavery. New views, 
new aims, new principles, new measures, and new 
men, are to take the place of the old in aftairs of State. 
It is not to be apprehended, in my opinion, that the 
extreme and unjust prejudice against the negro, result- 
ing from his former servile condition, will long survive 
this change, but it will perish, and, by orderly pro- 
grebs, the negro reach his natural position am^ng men^^ 

What action Congress will take, in view of the ques- 
tions to come before it, when it meets, cannot, of course, 
be foretold : but it will not probably be found to con- 
flict with the sound views of the President 

The States lately in rebellion being now in the 
Union, it follows therefrom that they are each entitled, 
in common with their sister States, to that representa- 
tion in Congress provided for in the Constitution and 
laws. Nevertheless, it is the right of Congress to 



w 

decide on the election and qualification of claimants 
of membership ; and, in exercising this right, it may 
practically^ exclude the whole or any number of per- 
sons who may present themselves, claimina; seats from 
any of the States in question. They would then have 
to remain uiu'epresented until rhey shou d make choice 
of membeis according to law, or Cong ess should see 
fit to reverse its decision. 

The popular character of our Government makes it 
necessary that Congress, if it refuses admission- to the 
representatives of States, should proceed only on solid 
and defensible grounds, or else incur the risk of the 
consequences which an adverse decision at the ballot' 
box may entail. If irit^ligible persons are chosen, or 
persons come forward without evidence ot legal elec- 
tion, they will be compelled to stand aside, and there 
will be no just cause of complaint. But if Congress 
should refuse to permit members to take seats because 
their States, in exercise of a right recognized by the 
Constitution, had decided to adopt a particular form 
of suff'rage, the act vvill be unjustifiable, and the peo- 
ple would probably so declare it by their votes. 

At this juncture of affairs it is to be hoj>ed that a 
spirit of mutual forbearance and consideration will be 
cultivated, and in this view the States of the South 
may be expected to acquiesce in the proposition, which 
has recentl}^ been suggested, that the Constituti-on 
should be so amended as to adopt for 'he basis of Fede- 
ral representation that class of the population only wbo 
may be at the time endowed with the elective fran- 
chise. The existing rule on the subject was adopted 
by the Convention which framed the Constitutiiii in 
view of a condition ot things which no longer exists 



11 

inleonseqiience of the emancipation of the slaves. The 
practical effect of this rule, under existing circum- 
stances, will be to augment the comparative Federal 
representation of the States lately in rebellion without 
corresponding increase of population, while their whole 
political power will still be engrossed by the portion 
of the population, however small, on which the States 
may see proper to confer the voting privilege. Ihe 
injustice of this is apparent. ■ It, is not unreasonable 
to hope,, therefore^ that the amendment proposed, or 
some other yet to be devised for the same purpose, 
will be adopted without serious opposition from any 
quarter. 

In view of the prospect of renewed peace and mu- 
tual respect and good will, which the successful carry- 
ing out of the measures of the President may be ex- 
pected to develop, it' is to be hoped that all parties will 
cordially exert themselves for that end. It is a con- 
summation earnestly to be prayed for by all lovers of 
our country new established to be " one and indivisi- 
ble." This once attained, and the various pursuits of 
productive industry resumed throughout the land, with 
the wealth that would flow into the public cofiers, the 
national debt might be placed in course of liquidation, 
the derangement of the currency corrected, and much 
of the taxation which presses on the people withdrawn. 
Our country would then take, with regard to other 
nations, that commanding position to which it is enti- 
tled by its immense capacities for usefulness to them 
in peace, or destructiveness in war. With a thoroughly 
united people, it would then be in our power, should 
circumstances render it expedient, to make the Mon- 
roe doctrine effective, either by diplomacy or by arms. 



12 

and to exert again that controlling influence we justly 
claim in the affairs of this continent. 

I have thus given you, in the briefest possible man- 
ner, my views of the state of public affairs. I should 
have preferred being more elaborate, but, in a commu- 
nication of this kind, it is difficult to enlarge to the 
fullest extent on the many important and complex 
subjects which present themselves. Thanking you 
for the honor you have done me in deeming my views 
worthy your own or the public consideration, 
I remain, very truly. 

Your obedient servant, 

M. F. CONWAY. 



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